Self Reflective Essays / Publication / Modern Dance (Q)

 

 1



 

Heart-Warmed and Full of Confidence

 Zixiao Dong 

 

It has been about four month since we began our dance class. I feel I enjoyed learning to dance. I felt scared and less confident in the begining, but we were always encouraged to be responsible; this, made me feel heart-warmed and full of confidence. Thus, the most important thing I learned from this course is how to dance and how I can create movements that are harmonious with the rhythm of the music. All the different kinds of poses and movements were new to me. Now, I already have a good grasp of this knowledge, which I hold precious during my collage life. 

As we know, college students tend to be completely exhausted with the variety of papers and homework we need to finished in a short amount of time. This has a huge impact on our health, both mentally and physically. I always feel tired when I finish all my work. However, modern dance class taught me several ways to relax by stretching different parts of  my body which is really helpful for me. I havent felt so relaxed since I took this class. Modern Dance helped me a lot to get through this semester.  

Dance, as the main educational content in our classes, has not only cultivated my body posture, but also made my movements more coordinated and rhythmic. It has also allowed me to express my feelings and love for life even more. Therefore, in the future, I plan to actively participate in dance movements, watch various performances, learn and exercise my body in different dance styles. In addition, I will make time to enjoy all kinds of dances and practice, which will also improve my skills. Through these learning opportunities, I  will constantly enrich my life, knowledge and insights, but also master other forms of expression. I loved the atmosphere during class; my classmates were enthusiastic and helpful to each other which is precious in days like these, when many of students need to take class via zoom. 

 

 2

 


The Journey Was Truly Rewarding

Amanda Rojas


I’ve always enjoyed the idea of dancing. When I was younger, you could certainly see me dancing on all the pep rallies. Part of the reason was to have fun and spend time with my friends and the other reason was to get the chance to express myself through dance. As a business technology major, it can be hard to find time to just let go and be creative. For this reason, when I finally had the opportunity to pick a class outside of my requirements, I was thrilled to be able to take a dance class. After considering several options, I decided to take Modern Dance and explore the beginnings of an expressive style of dance.

Throughout the class, I got to learn the history of modern dance and find my inner dancer. While experimenting in this class, I took away lessons that I’ll always keep with me. For example, one of my main takeaways was learning to get inspired from others but find my own way of dancing. At the beginning, I was focused on imitating or dancing similarly to the videos we were shown. However, I started learning to not imitate, but to find my style through the inspiration. In addition, I learned to be confident in myself and to not be afraid of expressing myself. 

Most of the times we judge ourselves too much and end up limiting our abilities. But I learned the importance of trusting in ourselves and to enjoy every minute we get to dance. Even though it was just a class for school, the journey was truly rewarding and I’m confident that I’ll be able to apply what I learned in everything I do. 

 

 



 A Treasurable Memory

Yuge Bai  


In this class, I deeply learned about modern dance. Before taking this class, I thought dancing was just movement with some music. However, during this semester in learning modern dance, I understood that dance is not only simple movements, but also a need to focus on rhythm, flow and how to express one's emotions. The most impressive and interesting takeaway has been that we are able to express ourselves with unrestricted movement. By using an object to express flow, for instance, we experienced  uncontrolled movement as a dance quality. As a result, I really enjoyed every lecture this semester. It is a pity that I could not dance in the classroom instead of in zoom.

I have chosen Finance and Psychology as my majors and Art as my minor. Thus, modern dance class has been a nice bridge to connect my majors and my elective classes. As I always do some research about human emotion in psychology, this class has taught me how to express my own emotions through dance. I think modern dance allows us to use techniques from our daily lives in a more creative way

This class  will be a treasurable memory from my college experience. In the fall, I will go to Columbia University for my graduate studies in cognitive science. I think I can use what I have learned, which is that modern dance can be very experimental instead of theoretical.  I can express my feelings and emotions in different ways which is not through words, but through dancing. 

I got to learn about dancers such as Mary Wigman, Isadora Ducan, Ruth St. Denis, Charles Weidman and others who expressed their art and themselves in different ways. They had a huge influence on  dance and became the pioneers of the modern dance movement. In addition, I liked watcing my classmates dancing in class. From watching their videos, I could know that I needed to improve in my own dance trainingg. Although I could only take this modern dance class in zoom due to COVID-19, I feel that I improved a lot, both, mentally and body wise.


4



Dance Can Go Way Beyond

Hamlin Chen


As we head off to finish this semester, I want to simply sum up my experience in this modern dance class. I have never taken a serious dance class before in the first 20 years of my life, so I was deadly nervous before this semester started. As the class moved on, I felt more and more confident and I started to figure out what kind of change has happened in me. Here are few of my takeaways.  

Firstly, it is never wrong to get fit. This is not about shape. Our class focused on warm up very much. The way we prepare our body before dancing does not only releases our pressure but also helps our other body systems. I was tired after warming up in our first class, but this exhaust is now gone due to constant practice.

Secondly, space should not limit your imagination. Due to Covid-19, many of our classmates can only take this course remotely, including myself. I do not have a big bedroom where I take my online courses. I was always afraid to hit something with my moves; therefore, the dance moves I came up with looked very dry and boring. Then, we were taught that space can only limit our physical body but that dance can go way beyond. 

This dance course also helped me with my major. I need to constantly sit in front of a computer for more than ten hours every week day. Dancing has been my only exercise throughout the week. Dancing has helped me to sleep well during mid-term weeks and get ready for tough exams.  I am indebted to dance. I feel dancing is addictive. 

I never liked dancing before. I never watched dance shows. However, since I started designing my own solo piece, I feel more and more confortable. The more I dance, the more ideas I have in my mind and the more I like it. Now I am hoping to receive more benefits and joy from dancing.  



5
 
 


Expressing Emotions
Chen Wang

I had never taken a modern dance class before. Thus, initially, I did not think that there were many different techniques to absorb. However, now, I clearly see that modern dance has a variety of techniques and styles, and some very important positions and alignments that make it to be an impressive art form. Over the course of this semester, I have learned about types of movements; some of them attracted my interest in dancing modern pieces, especially the cube and scarf exercises. The Tai Chi exercise, that in China is very popular, and I always see elder people practice in the park, was not as easy as I thought.  

 
There are always new things for us to learn when taking a new course, and nothing is as simple as we may feel. In the beginning, I believed it would be easy to learn to dance by following the movements and skills taught in class. But once I figured out how much effort, coordination and preparation it took to get ready for dance, I thought differently; I saw dance training from a new angle. Modern dance is more about expressing emotions, experiences, and stories through taking advantage of one's own body's movement potential. Gaining strength in my arms, legs, and neck to develop balance was important, not just for dance purposes, but for true expression. 
 
There were different elements I needed to consider in my own movements such as posture, musicality, and expression. I was able to focus on these elements by watching my in-person and on-zoom peers. Although this semester I was not able to participate in person for this class, watching what my peers did in the classroom made me experience a feeling of artistic appreciation. Also, the warm-ups and workouts with peers via zoom required our bodies to expand physically. I believe modern dance allows us to use movements from our daily lives in a more diverse and freeing way. What I learned is that modern dance can be very experimental instead of theoretical.  
 
This Fall, I will continue my graduate studies at a university in the U.K, and I will specialize in education and society. I hope I could use what I have learned in this class to help my students in the future.  I would like to help them explore emotions and expressions related to their own lives. What I think is important about this class is that it allowed everyone to feel and express themselves freely. Without needing to inculcate a universal way of dancing,  modern dance allows everyone to discover what everyone feels about life. I have been able to do so more freely since I have been taking this class.
 


6
 





Moving Multi-Dimensionally Across the Space

Yuxuan Qi

From this class I have learned the history of important modern dance pioneers and the definition of modern dance. We have learned Laban's Choreutics, which was my favorite part in this class. I learned that Laban linked his modern studies of movement to Pythagorean mathematics, notably musical scales and the “harmonic relations” of geometrical forms such as the right triangle and thr circle. Laban defined Choreutics as “the practical study of harmonized movement.” We then learned the qualities of levels and directions. Levels bring our bodies closer or further from gravity, whereas directions allow our bodies to move multi-dimensionally across the space.  

To apply Laban’s Choreutics, we learned patterns of body connections and made our own movements to explain our expereintial understanding of them. Next, we learned the Laban’s cube, the 4 movement components and the 8 efforts. We have also learned Wigman’s movement expressionism. I know that two things we have to do when dancing expressively is play and dream.  We then learned about Isadora Duncan's dance style. We created and organized eight movements based on the photos of Greek statues. 

Applying my dance experience to my major, has given me several ideas. For example, one of my majors is Management, through which I have learned that leaders should always adjust their tempers in order to show the best energetic image to their employees. Thus, I believe I could adjust my breath when I perceive that I am loosing my temper, just like we do during our warmup in class. I could also create movements after work to release pressure and tension. This practice could save and charge my energy for next day.

My experience of this class was a pleasure.  I loved the environment, how we conquered the challenge of being part of an online class. Every classmate always showed their positive attitude to this class and people are quite excited to perform their solo and ensemble dances. I could have taken more dance classes, but I am about to graduate in May. This class will become one of my best experiences at UM. 

 

7

 



A Much Larger, Wider Picture of Dance

Simon Heaster 


I have to say that as the semester has continued on, I not only enjoyed learning the new movements more and more, but I realized how useful it is to learn different dance and movement characteristics. Throughout the semester, we learned a lot about various past dancers from all around the world, as well as the movements they created and the impacts that they had on their audience. I significantly enjoyed learning about these different dancers, and definitely think it is important for people to realize the uniqueness and creativity that has been previously created through various dance pieces. Learning about these dancers and new movements gave me a much larger, wider picture of dance. I came to realize that dance can mean practically anything, as throughout the semester, I was able to create my own dance movements that I ended up incorporating into my final dance piece. 

 I enjoyed this class significantly and was able to learn a lot in terms of the proper way to dance and the best ways to warm up. As the semester progressed, I was able to not only complete the stretches and movements easier, but I felt myself become way more flexible.  I enjoyed the warm-ups to a significant extent, especially due to how tight my body normally is. I train at Cross-Fit for a minimum of 3 hours every day, and am always finding myself extremely sore, ache and lacking mobility. This class, though, 100% helped me expand my mobility and range of motion within various muscle groups. 

Something else I thoroughly enjoyed about this class was the fact that even though I took it via zoom, it was still extremely entertaining and way more engaging than I thought it was going to be. This made me motivated to always come to class, write comments in the discussion posts, and see other student’s work. It was amazing watching everyone’s development throughout the semester, including my own. I never thought that I would be able to interconnect different dance movements like I did in my final dance. When the class began, I was afraid that I was not going to be able to perform all of the movements, but as the semester progressed, I got more and more comfortable with taking risks and trying new things that I haven’t tried before. This gave me more confidence that helped me going into my final dance. 

 My major is finance, along with a minor that I am taking in real estate. As I am graduating next month (sadly), I have taken a self-reflection on the various non-major courses that I have taken over the past four years here at UM, and I have to say that this course was the most effective. The engagement and interaction were amazing, which is definitely used in the business world. I could use these social skills that I built up throughout the semester and apply it to the finance world, as I will be forced to meet with people of all kinds, and always go out of my comfort zone. This developed skill set, and confidence helped me to a great extent for my final dance piece, and I see it helping me throughout my future. Thank you very much for an amazing and eventful semester!


8




Dance is Something with No Limits

 Risa Kitajima

 

Things that I have found? I was not always sure about what I should do. I changed my major in college, went to a lot of different classes, tried a lot of different things and four years have passed, and guess what? I am still questioning myself. The reason why I decided to come here, to Modern Dance class, was an accident.

 

One of my acquaintances was bragging about how good his dance professor was; it really did not matter which class I should take, but I decided to take the Modern Dance II class. You know, the happier the class the merrier, I thought. I used to take ballet classes since age 2 and got some Royal Academy of Dance certificates.  My whole toe nails fell off but still, I decided to dance. I was not good at it, but I just liked it. It was in middle school when I decided to quit. I just found myself not suitable for ballet.  My teacher told me that the figure requirements for it were too high, and I was not a good candidate.

 

Although, people from my childhood knew me as the little ballerina, after I quit, I decided to get as far away from dance as I could. I began to be scared  of it and started to feel concerned about putting so much effort into it. I was still very terrified to dance until I met Miss Kaminsky on my sophomore year.  It was not a real dance class; it was a dance/movement therapy class. It made me feel better: moving and stretching, which I decided to never even think about after several years since I quit ballet. I did not know why, but I just could not quit dance. Thus, I decided to take something really outside of my comfort zone; it took me a while to register for Modern Dance II.

 

I decided to give it a try. It was very, very different from ballet. There were no high grande battements, no harsh echappes sauttees and no endless turns with point shoes. It was just very different. But I liked it; I liked the new sense of self I felt. A new me, a beautiful and confident self, emerged, thanks to this class. I loved how free modern dance can be. Instead of the "elegance and beauty" of ballet, modern dance focused on studying different dancers and multiple expressions of dances. I think the biggest thing I learned in this class is to accept that oneself is unique.  It is very good to try something new, something very abnormal for your old self and it is a process to make yourself anew.

 

During my solo creation, I thought about what to create and how to express what I felt and thought in very simple movements. I have concluded that dance is something with no limits, and no right answer. The more authentic the expression is, the better a person would feel. I think dance is not only a combination of movements, but a process to help one understand oneself and one's identities. I am very grateful to have found this class, modern dance! It has been a wonderful last semester at UM.

 
 
9
 
 

 
 
The Mind-Body Connection
 
Anonimous

 
Reflecting on this semester, on taking DAN 211, there were a lot of key takeaways I can think of. This class had taught me a lot; despite being a dance class and me being a biochemistry major, there are plenty of skills that I will carry with me throughout life. 
 
The first major takeaway I want to touch on is the ritual of stretching at the beginning of each class. As someone who is into health and fitness and lifts weights about 5 days a week, I think it is extremely important to stretch daily. However, most people, myself included, do not do this daily. By coming to class two times a week and stretching at the beginning has made me fall back into the habit of stretching daily, even if for only 5 minutes a day. I cannot tell you how much this has had a positive impact on my body and even my mind. Spending most days sitting down immobile, staring at a computer screen, is no way to live life. It is so important to move one's body, so when I am taking study breaks, I try to stretch for a few minutes to give my mind and body a break. To be flexible in the body is to be flexible in the mind.  
 
The second major takeaway is the significance of not looking at myself in the mirror when dancing. Meaning, stop being so self-critical and just simply be. This is something that I will carry with me through all aspects of my life. I am extremely self-critical and have a history of being told I am “too hard on myself”. I know this is not something I can change overnight but taking baby strides to not judge myself so much and to just be free is a very liberating experience and something I plan to continue to work on throughout my life. 
 
Finally, the last takeaway I want to touch on is breath work. I started to get into breath work last spring when I was taking your stretching class and I ended up falling out of this habit. Breath work has saved me in many frustrating situations where I felt overwhelmed and like I would snap. Taking a step back and taking five deep breaths allowed me to be grounded and centered again. Teaching us how to properly breathe through the belly is something new to me that I will continue to practice and also teach others. 
 
I believe there is nothing more important than the mind body connection and I love that you have also highlighted that in this class. It is so easy to get worn out and burned out in university life but this class always brought me back to a calm state of being. Constantly working under constant stress and anxiety is not healthy and is often unproductive. Those three major takeaways that I touched on will help me to maintain a low stress and low anxiety life, which is something I have struggled with in the last few years. I will never forget this class, the life skills I learned.
 
 
10
 




My Own Joy While Dancing
Sydney Dymant
 
 
This class was really powerful for me because it gave me the opportunity to express my creativity through movement and dance. This class reminded me of my childhood where I took many dance classes. However, I stopped dancing when I got to 8th grade because I believed I did not have enough time to do my school work. Reflecting on that now, it feels very sad that I stopped dancing. This class gave me a chance to dance again, which is something that I used to love. I still love to dance but have not done so in a class setting in many years. 
 
This class really reminded me of my childhood and how dance can be a powerful tool for relaxing and connecting to yourself and others.This class is also such a contrast from the rest of my classes and major. I am majoring in Finance so my classes consist of business law, operational management, organizational management, and various kinds of financial classes. In those classes it is all about getting the ‘correct’ answer and having your grades compared to other students against a curve. While this may be necessary in college, it is also exhausting. It was so refreshing to take this class where the focus was on experience and expression, as opposed to competition and technical correctness. 
 
I learned so much in this class about myself and my natural ability to express myself through movement. In this class I uncovered my own creativity to create movements and dance sequences and I plan to definitely use that in my major. For example, I can use my creativity to design beautiful slide decks with a sense of flow and movement from one slide to the next. This is similar to the kind of movement and flow that exists between dance movements when trying to pull the piece together. 
 
One of the best things I got out of this class was the experience of letting go and caring less about how I looked while I moved. At the beginning of the class, I felt uncomfortable dancing on zoom or having others watch me dance. However, I now feel much more comfortable with this. Even though I get nervous at times, I realize that what others think while watching me is not important and what matters is my own joy while dancing. 
 
I also loved getting to create our own solo pieces. We chose the music, created the dance, and named the piece ourselves. This gave us full creative direction over our piece.  It was empowering to create a piece of work from start to finish. 
 
I also enjoyed all of the life lessons the professor shared with us and hearing his story about being the only one from his original dance group who is still dancing and doing what he loves. That is beautiful that he never gave up on his passion and it is so inspiring for us to hear. I hope I can do what I love in my life as well. Our Professor also reminded us to appreciate the time we spend with people and specifically, the time we get to spend dancing in-person with others, as we typically take that for granted and never know when it could be taken away. Thanks so much for a wonderful semester.
 
 
11
 
 

 
 
 How to be  a Better Dancer
 Bella Freedberg

Modern dance II has taught me about numerous dancers and theorists that have all influenced what Modern dance is known as today. I learned about a variety of basic dance movements that were created by these dancers and theorists. The movements are simple steps that I was able to incorporate into my dancing to make it my own. It also helped inspire the movements for my group dance. Throughout the semester, this course has taught me about the history of Modern dance, how to be a better dancer and work with others, and taught me ways to incorporate this into my own field of studies and my everyday life. 

One of the main components I learned in class was Laban’s four components and eight efforts of action. These movements are basic steps that I do everyday subconsciously. The eight efforts of action include wring, press, flick, dab, glide, float, punch, and slash.  The four components of human movement include direction, weight, speed, and flow. Learning these made me realize how often I utilize these movements and taught me to be more aware of my body. It also helped me connect my mind and body and focus on the movements and forget any little distractions around me. This exercise was one of my favorites as it was fun to be able to take such a simple movement and be so creative with it. It was also exciting to see what my classmates would do and we were all able to inspire each other and incorporate it into our group dance. 

Wigman, an expressionist, was another dancer we learned about. This was another one of my favorite topics we studied in class, specifically the eight emotions: love, surprise, greed, sadness, hate, happiness, fear, and love. We did various exercises in class where we would do different movements that expressed our emotions. This definitely made me step outside of my comfort zone as it felt weird acting out different expressions. I think it is a lot easier to express how I  truly felt versus acting out an emotion. For example, it was a lot more natural to express happiness and love versus fear and vanity. I also enjoyed the exercise where we would throw fabrics up in the air and catch it. This allowed me to be creative with the movements and experience dancing with a prop. This also allowed me to connect my mind and body and be aware of my movements. I enjoyed dancing with my classmates as well as we inspired each other.

All of the theories and dancers we learned in class have taught me how to be a better dancer and work well with others. I learned how to express my emotions through movements and it improved my team working skills as we all came together to create a dance in the end incorporating everything we learned in class. I can incorporate this into my own field of study and in my everyday life as I can practice dance to help connect my mind and body as a form of meditation. Specifically, the tai chi dance as I can practice the movements, such as moving the energy, which can help clear my thoughts. This will help me de-stress and increase my ability to focus. 

 

12

 

 


 

The True Artistic Form of Artistic Dance

Krishna Louis 

 

This class was by far the best class I have taken this semester. With COVID and Zoom University, I wanted this semester (since it is sadly my last) to be one of the most fulfilling and relax. I do not think this class can be taught by anyone else other than Professor Jorge. I have learned so much in the styles of dance, that I was able to take what I learned all semester and incorporate it into my first ever solo piece. This class has been such a rewarding experience for me.

 

I learned the concept and true artistic form of artistic dance. Additionally,  the basic foundations of modern dance, choreutics, the founding fathers/mothers of expressionist dance such as Isadora Duncan, Ted Shawn, Mary Wigman, Ruth St. Denis and Charles Widman and many more. With dance I learned that it's not just about creating movements, but a story that expresses emotions, flow, and climax. 

 

I never created a solo piece, let alone performed one before, but this was a great opportunity to do it for the first and last time before I finish my college career. My solo piece was titled “Purpose” about a young girl who is trying to figure out her purpose in life. She goes through obstacles that make her think she cannot make it, so she is trying to find her way in hopes to have a better future. Dancing my solo, not only did I express it through my movements, I also felt like I was in the story. It minded me of the Pixar movie “Soul”, being so in tune as if my soul was dancing. My solo made me feel free and was very fun to experience. I really enjoyed this class and wish I had at least one more semester, just to take this class one more time. 

 

13

 

 



 

 The Vitality of a Physical and Mental/Spiritual Connection

Nikki Vlahos

 

In this class I learned a lot of valuable take-aways both about myself, my body, my emotions, and the physical expression of all of the above in the artistic form of dance. Throughout this class, we explored several different arenas of dance including the foundations of modern dance, choreutics, movement patterns, Laban’s Cube of different levels and spatial recognition, different genres of dance (expressionist and modern), the revolutionary creators of modern and expressionist dance such as Mary Wigman, Kurt Jooss, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, and many other important supporters and participants of this art form.

 

This class has taught me so much more than dance; this class and my experience in this class has taught me about some of the most important foundations in life. I was forced to focus on my spirituality, energy, and the physical, emotional, and mental needs of my body. While doing the stretches and warming up my body before going into the dance portion of each class, I realized that I had a lot of difficulty staying still and also had difficulty with my mind wandering. Additionally, I became more aware of my terrible addiction to my cell-phone. 

 

The first step to improving and working on being more in tune with my body is being aware that currently, I am not. This class has helped me to realize the vitality of a physical and mental/spiritual connection within my body. It has helped me to become more creative, centered and focused on more than what the material world tells us is important. Throughout this experience, I have been more grounded in the truly important things in life such as getting off the screens that we are so addicted to everyday and appreciate the beauty of the world around us. While learning Tai Chi, for instance, I thought about my grandmother who practices many different forms of Eastern medicine. I finally understood why she felt so good doing it every day: because she was connecting with her body in a way that few people engage in nowadays.

 

I was also forced to be more creative and break out of the normal boundaries and confines which we inflict upon ourselves. Many times, we are taught to be critical of ourselves and believe that perfection is what we must achieve; however, we learned to put those subconsciously instilled barriers aside in order to unlimit our true movement abilities. Breaking down these boundaries and barriers allowed us to focus on creating dance that was completely free- flowing. Honestly, my favorite part of the class was simply coming and being able to relieve myself of outside stress.

 

While the class was much smaller and more limited due to the pandemic, it gave those of as in-person a more intimate setting with a phenomenal energy. I will always take away the positive energy, creativity, the focus on my physical-mental-emotional connection, muscle-memory, and appreciation of my body and all of its abilities. I have never been a very creative person or someone who delves into the arts, but this was a truly amazing experience that I will remember. It was one of my favorite classes in college.
 
 
14
 
 

 
Better Late Than Never

Eric Winn 


Modern Dance 211 taught me how much dance can influence oneself as a person. From Tai Chi to dance pioneers like Mary Wigman, society does not ever consider that dance has its own history that allowed the free body-expression we have today. This history evolved into all the different types of modern dance styles we have today. This led dancers to be able to freely express themselves today, which  leads to the key point that I learned about: I, and not just dancers, should focus on bettering myself in all aspects of life.

One of my favorite points that this class taught me was being able to selfishly focus on myself. Focusing on my mind and body, I learned how to make the machine that is me work together as one. My favorite part of this class was that we spent every first half of class just focusing on breathing, stretching, and relaxing the mind and body in order to work together. From breathing, control, posture, to body shape, gravity and push/pull, the movements really helped me realize how much about my body I didn’t know. 

 In the future, this knowledge will allow me to always be able to look within myself and realize when I am pushing myself too hard and need to take a step back, for example. I now feel okay being in the middle of doing work and breaking and relaxing my mind and body before getting back to it. So much in my life now is constantly geared towards an "always go mentality," and for better or for worse that means I don’t get a lot of time to stop and breathe. This is common in both industries I am considering working in (Basketball or Wealth Management). Both industries demand the most out of you at any given point in time, and if you are unable to fulfill their expectation they will find someone else who will. Thus, this class helped me learn to pull myself out of that grind when I need a break. I can use these exercises taught to us to reset myself. With so much stress and anxiety that comes with Zoom University, this class came at the perfect time for me. 

It is funny how this class all comes around. People like Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan, and all the other artists/performers we learned about helped influence the free dance moves and relaxation techniques this class teaches. Whether they meant it or not they influenced a huge part of modern dance, being the pioneers in their time and expressing themselves in ways that people might find disturbing. Being the ones able to take the grief from society allowed us today to be able to express ourselves and move our bodies today as we please. It allows us to say we can move however we want and still make it art, performance, life, etc. This is another key takeaway that I’ve learned from this class that I can apply to my life. I don’t need to do what everyone else is doing no matter the field I go into. I can express myself and work however I want to, and still find ways to succeed. 

Overall, I am very pleased with this class and am very glad that I took it. It allowed me to be able to understand how to focus and relax myself in ways I never knew. Being able to know when I need to take myself back and focus on myself is something that I wish I knew how to do earlier in my life, but better late than never.

 

15




Getting Out of Our Own Heads

 Cameron Cruz

 

Dancing has been a huge part of my life ever since I was nine years old. I used to do Tae Kwon Do, but for some reason, I was drawn to dance and begged my mom to put me in a class. I am not quite sure what edged me to dance, but I wanted to try it more than anything. Here I am, 11 years later dancing for this University and hopefully pursuing a professional career. 

 

Dance always felt like an outlet, a space for me to forget about the outside world, even if it was only for a couple of hours. It gets hard at times; sometimes I just want to stop because it can be hard on the body and mind, but at the end of the day I need it and I love it. I took a modern class at a dance camp for a couple of weeks when I was about 13. It was a very new and different style for me, something I actually struggled with. I struggle with getting out of my comfort zone and I feel that modern really pushes people to do that, there are so many different aspects to it. 

 

This class, once again, pushed me out of my comfort zone, doing things I’m not used to or wasn’t naturally inclined to do. This class also helped me with my improv/free style ability because I was able to learn different ways to move my body. Things that used to feel very unnatural are becoming a bigger part in my dance education and practice. Getting out of our own heads as dancers is one of the most difficult things to do, we are our own biggest critics. This class taught me to just let myself be me and try new things, even if I was hesitant about it. I am very hard on myself but I have learned to appreciate my own abilities. I have grown as a dancer. 

 

 

16 

 


 


 Massive Passion

Yun Ma

 



I always had a massive passion for dancing, I found it exciting and cool in general. However, I found myself not good at dancing, so I did not put any time into it. I am happy that UM offers this course that provides me another opportunity to learn more about dance. I am glad that this course does not only teaches me how to move my body physically but also teaches me the deeper side of dancing, the history, and its meaning.

 

I am majoring in business management; although it does not sound related to dance, I positively believe I will use some of the mindset I learned from this course, at least they can help me relax or be concentrating. As for my personal experience throughout the semester, I can only say it would be better if we all can be together and dance together, I think that would be super fun.

 

On the other hand, online courses provide more opportunities, which is also good. This is a difficult time, but I think everybody did a great job! Take me as an example, I never performed in front of  anybody before dance class, I used to feel I was not good enough. But this course gave me a lot of confidence that made me believe I could do it, and as a result, I did it. Although it was not perfect, I am very satisfied with the outcome.

 


17

 




Dancing Involves the Whole Person

Yiyang Wu



In this class, I have acquired a different understanding of modern dance. Before taking this class, I thought that dancing was just a movement accompanied by music. After a semester of study, I found that a good dance is definitely not limited to the movement of the body. Sometimes too much focus on the completeness of each movement can make the whole dance look very stiff. I think dancing must involve the whole person.

 

As the music changes, one feels the changes in your heart quietly. In the process of learning modern dance this semester, I learned that dance is not only a simple movement, but also it requires attention to rhythm and ways of expressing emotions. My major is Economics. Most of my major is focused on some rigid data and theories. Dance has helped me to explore the possibilities of diversification.

 

Dance is creative and has no limitations. This characteristic forms a good complement to my major. It lets me find more creative possibilities while studying economics. In this class, I learned about many dancers of different styles who expressed their artistic style and attitude towards life in different ways. They had a huge influence on the development of dance and became the pioneers of the modern dance movement.

 

I think the most interesting thing a take from this class is being able to explore the possibilities of new dance styles with my peers. Many of my classmates were very unfamiliar when they danced their movement phrases for the first time, but after many practice sessions, they made great progress. I think this breakthrough has been very important to me as well.


 

18

 

 


 

Understanding My Body

Cleve Reed 

 

My take away from the course was to trust in my ability and my body. Having good control of your body will take you a long way in dance . The key to being a good dancer is to be flexible and confident in yourself. Dance class was very peaceful for me and it also helped me calm my body. 

I will use what I learned in class to help me with my career in football. In football you have to be confident and flexible just like in dance. Dance also helps with your balance and your different movements. To be a great football player is hard, but I feel like every athlete should take a dance class to help their training process. 

My first couple classes were hard for me because I’m not a good dancer and I also didn’t believe in my skills and abilities. Being able to move backwards at a certain position and control my body was very difficult. Towards the end of the last couple of classes, I was hurt due to my pec injury, but the movements I did helped me to increase my flexibility. It also helped me understand my body. Thanks to this class, I was pushed me to come out of my comfort zone.

 

19

 

 

 

 Different in My Heart

 Weijian Wang

 

First of all, this is my first time in this type of class. Modern dance has brought me many surprises. When I introduced myself in the first class, I said that I had no experience in dancing, and the reason for choosing this course was because my friend recommended me to take this course. What I said about the experience without dancing is not only that I had no formal dance training, but dancing has never been a part of my life. Some people would swing when they hear music, but I never did. 

I used to believe that dancing is just a beautiful, difficult and boring thing. I have to say that I had this idea because I only watched other people dance. I had never experienced or thought about other people's dances. The first thing I was shocked in the "Modern Dance" class was that famous dancers expressed their feelings through dancing. Wigman's expressionist dance, for instance, moved me deeply

The eight emotional expressions in class were my favorite class exercise. They included Vanity, Surprise, Greed, Sadness Hate, Happiness, Fear, and Love. From the simplest single movement to the more complex movements, I was able to  embody emotions. These movements were integrated into my dance.  Thus, dancing became different in my heart. I don't think dancing is boring anymore, I became interested in dancing.

For me, the dance skills I learned are secondary to the creative harvest I experienced. This class has changed my view on dancing and its place in my life. I did not know how I was going to dance in class. To be honest, I don't think I dance very well, and I did not have much confidence most of the time. Maybe because, after  we showed our work, even if I felt that I did not dance well, I got the applause and expressions of "very good, very beautiful" from my peers, I began to feel encouraged. Or maybe because everyone shared their work  me, I gained self-confidence. Even though I was using zoom in class, I felt that I became really involved.

My major is economics and mathematics. To be honest, I don’t need Modern Dance and I’m unlikely to be a good dancer. However, I am sure that I like dancing. I am sure that I will sway my body every time I hear music in the future. I have never been so sure that dancing will be an important part of my life as I am now.

This is my first experience with dance, and it has really been a great experience, even if I attended class at home late at night. I don't know when dancing became my way of relaxing, but every time I stretched in class, I forgot the essays I needed to write and the exams I needed to prepare for.

I am not sure if I will still choose to learn dance in the future, but I will definitely dance often. This is how I really feel about this class. I liked it very much as I always said before. Professor, you once said that many people will only consider business matters in the future. To be honest, unconsciously, I feel that I also have this tendency. I did not show myself on the day I heard you say this.

Dancing became a way for me to find happiness in life, a way to relax. My tired body and relaxed spirit are the results of dancing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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